“Right to Die” Means a Physician Duty to
Kill?
Bioethicist Jacob Appel can be relied on to promote the most radical
bioethics agendas, assisted suicide for the mentally ill, fetal
farming, you name it. And now he has argued that if Montana
affirms a constitutional right to assisted suicide in Montana, the
state has a duty to make sure that doctors are willing to do the
deed. Why? Doctors have a monopoly on a limited
commodity–the practice of medicine–and hence they should be able to be
forced to participate in the taking of patients’ lives in assisted
suicide. From his column:
However, it [medical license and professional autonomy] belies any
claim that doctors should have the same right to choose their customers
as barbers or babysitters. Much as the government has been willing to
impose duties on radio stations (eg. indecency codes, equal time rules)
that would be impermissible if applied to newspapers, Montana might
reasonably consider requiring physicians, in return for the privilege
of a medical license, to prescribe medication to the dying without
regard to the patient’s intent.
This is taking the duty to die and transforming it into a duty to
kill. And it reflects a profound misunderstanding of the
government’s role. The government is not a guarantor that, for
example, anyone will read this blog–which is a classic example of a
citizen exercising his First Amendment right to free speech. The
government, absent a compelling interest, just can’t prevent me from
writing. Similarly, if the Montana Supreme Court goes the wrong
way, Montana law won’t be able to prevent physicians from engaging in
assisted suicide. But that doesn’t mean it should be able to
compel them help kill.
The culture of death, however, brooks no dissent. Apple continues:
The right to die is not an abstract principle. This right — or its
absence — has a profound effect on the fundamental welfare of nearly
every individual and family in the nation during the most vulnerable
moments of their lives. If the Montana Supreme Court guarantees
citizens the right to aid in dying, and I am both hopeful and confident
that the court will do so, then it is also incumbent upon the justices
to ensure a mechanism by which patients can exercise their rights. To
do otherwise — to offer a theoretical right to die that cannot be
meaningfully exercised — will be both a hollow gesture and a cruel
taunt to the terminally ill.
No, it is to support their intrinsic human dignity and the Hippocratic
“do no harm” values of medicine. And under that theory, I should be
able to have the government force everyone in the country to read this
blog.
Don’t think it can’t happen here. Medicine is being quickly transformed
into an order-taking technocracy. Victoria, Australia law
requires doctors to perform abortions on request or refer to a doctor
who will. Assisted suicide legislators in California tried to
pass a law that would have required doctors to sedate and dehydrate
terminally ill patients on demand.
Appel’s advocacy is a glimpse of a possible future in which any
physician seeking to adhere to traditional Hippocratic values will be
kicked out of medicine.
Contact:
Wesley J. Smith
Source:
Secondhand
Smoke
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Date: September 3, 2009
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The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
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persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
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